Why Analytics Matter in the Game Industry

When most game companies think of examining a video game, they
are usually talking about game testing or reviews from game
journalists. But one are that is gaining popularity is the use of
analytics to give more information to designers on how their game
is being responded to by the consumer.

Today's post talks about the
importance of game analytics software and what Xsolla's own
analytics software can do help you with your title.

The Early Examination:

The first major use of game analytics in the industry is
credited to Valve with Half Life 2. One of the side effects of the
development of Steam last decade was that it gave Valve the ability
to track how people played Half Life 2. They were able to see
information like how long it took someone to beat a section, what
weapons were the most popular, what achievements were earned and
etc.

This information provided Valve with a detailed examination that
they were able to use to tweak not just Half Life 2, but how they
developed future games. Information like this provided Valve with
unbiased views of how people saw their titles and showcases the
importance of analytics. It was this kind of data that instrumental
in the development and growth of Valve's biggest hit
Team Fortress, that went through numerous changes
in design over the years.

Team Fortress 2 has been an amazing success and has been
analyzed heavily by Valve.

Chances are for most of you reading this, you are either
developing or already have a F2P game released and analytic
software can be extremely useful for you.

Examining Online Games:

While Valve's use of analytics was originally for their
singleplayer games, analytic software also serves a purpose for
multiplayer or games built around monetization.

Regardless of the analytic software that you are planning on
using, there are several important areas that you should be
examining. Obviously the size of your player base is a big deal,
but we can go deeper by looking at retention and churn rate.

Retention simply means how many customers you had in one month
are still there the next. Churn rate measures how many people are
no longer subscribed or playing your game. Both variables are
incredibility important for social or F2P games as a way to measure
success and how profitable your game is.

Analytics can give you information relating to how well your
microtransactions are doing.

You can also examine the monetization aspect of your game: What
items sold the best, what sold the worst, is there a specific type
of item that is doing well/poorly? These are important questions
when it comes to not only developing new content for your game but
to also see where you need to make changes.

For instance, let's say your game offers cosmetic items like
capes, hats, etc. Your software reports that the majority of your
fan base is buying hats as opposed to other items. That means two
things: You should have your team focus on making more varied hat
items and that you should also try lowering the price on the other
items to see if that will attract a following.

Game balance is another area where analytics can come in handy.
If you notice that the majority of your expert players are using
one specific type of weapon, maybe there is an imbalance that you
missed during development that needs to be adjusted.

If you are looking for an analytic software, Xsolla can provide
you with one of the best.

Xsolla Game Analytics:

For developers looking for analytic software,
Xsolla Game Analytics is available for your
needs. Our software is easy to use and very powerful; measuring the
areas that we mentioned above and a lot more. Having a clean
UI makes it easy to see how your game is doing and provide accurate
reports for meetings that any member of your team can understand.
Xsolla Game Analytics can measure preset metrics (like MAU, DAU,
ARPPU, demographics, revenue, user base) or you can customize it to
your own needs by selecting other metrics that are most important
to you.

We've partnered with Capsidea to help develop our analytic
software. Capsidea is an analytical platform that was designed to
be easy to understand. Using drag and drop functionality, allows
anyone regardless of technical skill to create and understand the
reports from the Xsolla Game Analytics software.

Right now the software is in beta but you can find a demo and
sign up for more information at the link above. Analytic
information is becoming more important in the Game Industry. As
developers are competing with free to play titles or simply wanting
to improve a single player game, this information can be vital to
making sure that your game becomes a hit.

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